Tag: lifestyleblogger

If you ever heard of essential oils, then you know that they are literally essential.

Essential oils come from extracting different parts of plants/nuts. These concentrated hydrophobic liquid usually have a strong smell to them. (Think of tea tree oil).

There are so many different usages and benefits that it makes life so much easier when you grab some the next time you are at a grocery store.

You can use these oils for cleaning, beauty treatments, healing methods, antidepressants, fighting infections, relaxation, increasing energy levels, improving brain function…just to name a few.

I am going to share my favorite essential oils that I have in my house including how/why I use it.

1.Tea tree oil

This strong smelling oil helps with skin ailments, foot odors, cleaning counters, and freshens air. I personally use it for my skin. Whenever I get a cut I drop some tea tree oil in it. Not too much. I mainly use it every night as an acne treatment. This really helps.

Almond Oil

Almond oil is known as carrier oil, so you would use it before you put on your essential oil to dilute it/better absorption. I use this on my eyes at night, to moisturize and take away dark circles.

3.. Eucalyptus Oil

Has antiseptic qualities, used for healing, boosts immune system,can be used to clean, also cleans air odors. I use this to make my air smell cleaner if my house smells like my pets.

Lavender Oil

Very popular! Lavender helps with relaxation, reducing stress, soothing yourself (or the family as a whole). You can also use this to remove pet odors from the house. Lavender Oil moisturizes the skin and reduces bug bites as well. I use this every night before going to bed.

Peppermint Oil

Helps relieve headaches, migraines, nausea, stomach issues, and muscle pain. You can use this to increase brain oxygen and improve energy for exercising. I use this for my headaches- I pour some drops in my oil diffuser and let it do its magic!

To use essential oils- always dilute with water/use a carrier oil. This prevents you from getting severe burns because the oil is so strong. You can pick up an oil diffuser at the store and add water/drops of the oil, so your air will be filled with the scent of the oil. To use it for cleaning, just add it to the water and clean your floors, counters, etc. The main how-to for all essential oils is to dilute with water. Then you can try out the hundreds of different oils and see which ones work for you.

Mind Body Soul is a three week series where we learn tips, techniques, and points for our goal of transformation and renewal. We have three weeks to work on ourselves so we can start off feeling revived and refreshed to take on new projects, businesses, and plans that we may have in the second half of 2018 and the new school year. Ultimately our aim is to pour into ourselves, so we can better pour into others. For us women, we often put self care on the bottom of our to-do list after performing our wifey duties, taking care of our children, running our homes, being the president of the PTA, having 5 businesses and ministries, and taking over the world. No wonder we get burnt out and we are tired all the time! Self care needs to be at the top. How can we be better moms, teachers, managers, leaders, or women if we do not take care of the women in the mirror?

Sleep

Today is the last day of our series: Mind, Body, and Soul. We are going to be talking about sleep.

Psalm 127:2 tells us that “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep”. Reading closely, we find that God gives us sleep. God gives us sleep for a reason. He gives it to us so we can rest and feel rejuvenated for the next day’s work and responsibilities. God gave us a gift of slumber, and most of us are not accepting the gift. We are putting it on the shelf and only opening it until we feel burnt out, exhausted, and completely worn down. That is not how He intended it to be.

The society we live in does not care about sleep. We are conditioned to think that if we are not constantly moving around then we are not doing enough. It is a society that is so set on “Go, Go, Go!” When really, we should be telling our late activities and invites, “No, No, No!”

A good amount of sleep per night leads us to a healthier life. We know that when we stay up late, and wake up early, we feel like…so bad the next day. We are stressed out, irritated, sleepy, less productive, and overall just not as happy as we would have been if we had a nice sleep the night before. These feelings are not good to have if we want to be females of the future. Overtime, lack of sleep causes health issues; we are more likely to develop illnesses and inflammation. Lack of sleep forms dark circles under our eyes, forms depression, and some women report that they gain weight.

Sleep affects our quality of life. Good sleep improves the way our brain functions. People that have a good sleep routine, schedule, and amount of hours, are known to be more creative, have better memory, and perform better on tests and competitions. Sleep sharpens our attention, leading us to learn more and to learn better.

Us women, need our sleep. I know it is hard to put it in our schedules. We are so busy during the day, but we must make the time to rest. Jesus, who was on a boat in the middle lake when a storm was surrounding Him, was sleeping. Even during the whirlwind of work that surrounds us, we must sleep. We know that God is protecting us during our sleep. Jesus did not drown during that storm, He immediately calmed it down, and that is what He does when you are sleeping.

Now how much sleep should you get? Typically 8 hours is a good amount to aim for.

According to consumerhealthdigest.com, women need 20 more minutes of sleep than men. As ladies our brains are wired different, and we often multitask, so our brains needs to restore and repair itself during the night.

It is found that going to sleep at the same time and waking up at the same time helps with feeling great the next day instead of tired and sluggish. Some women have trouble falling asleep. I personally bought myself an oil diffuser.

This is the exact one I bought. I fill it up with water and then pour droplets of lavender. Using this before going to bed and during the night as helped me relax and sleep better. Before I go to bed, I often do five minutes of yoga and read a good, light, happy book. Some women read the Bible before bed, or some read a nice devotional. Do not read or watch anything horrific or extremely mentally stimulating before bed. That will keep your mind up. I personally write in a journal as well, just to get my last thoughts out before the day is over. This helps me get the clutter out of mind and onto paper so I am not in the dark overthinking. I used to have this problem and it affected my sleep so badly. It would take me forever to fall asleep and I would have bad dreams about my anxious thoughts and worries. A journal is amazing to keep on a table beside your bed along with a book. If you do wake up in the middle of the night, then you have a heartfelt book to read to make you sleepy again, or you can jot down an idea or worry you have on paper, then go right back to sleep.

Sleep is so important. We will be more productive, friendlier, happier, and less stressed out if we take care of ourselves and sleep! Even if we have thousands of emails to reply back to, if we have a nice amount of sleep every night and a rock solid bedtime routine, we will handle life’s tasks with grace. So now after you read this, decide what time you will be going to sleep and waking up, next make sure to pick out a candle scent or oil diffuser. Then pick out a nice book and journal and keep that next to your bed. This will put the ‘good’ in “good morning”. Have a happy and restful sleep!

Mind Body Soul is a three week series where we learn tips, techniques, and points for our goal of transformation and renewal. We have three weeks to work on ourselves so we can start off feeling revived and refreshed to take on new projects, businesses, and plans that we may have in the second half of 2018 and the new school year. Ultimately our aim is to pour into ourselves, so we can better pour into others. For us women, we often put self care on the bottom of our to-do list after performing our wifely duties, taking care of our children, running our homes, being the president of the PTA, having 5 businesses and ministries, and taking over the world. No wonder we get burnt out and we are tired all the time! Self care needs to be at the top. How can we be better moms, teachers, managers, leaders, or women if we do not take care of the women in the mirror?

This week we are focusing on our mind.

Hold up, Let me get my mind right.

So now that we ladies are more in tune with our spirituality, we meditate, we eat healthy, and we work out on a consistent basis, it is time to focus on our mind and brain wellness.

To be successful business owners, moms, leaders, managers, etc., we must take care of our brain. In fact, taking care of the brain and mind is often overlooked because some of us do not even know what that means and/or we think we got it all under control. Yeah, we may have it under control today, but there will be a time where we will not. That is just life.

How do we begin to take care of our brain and mind? Here are four steps.

First step: taking vitamins and supplements. If you do not take a multivitamin for women, you need to get on that ASAP! Vitamins are crucial because sometimes we may not get enough nutrients from the foods we eat, so the vitamins that we take will fill up our bodies to promote health and wellness. Vitamin B12 is medically known to prevent mental decline. A deficiency in this vitamin can cause memory loss and confusion. To purchase vitamin B12, visit your local supermarket or GNC.

Step two: THINK. Reading, writing, finishing a puzzle, and completing crossword puzzles are just a few examples that mentally stimulate your brain. You can even go on the app store on your smartphone and pick out games that help boost memory and cognitive skills. Personally, I am trying to learn two new languages at once. (Wish me luck please) When I am sitting trying to learn and understand new language concepts and words, I can already feel like mind and knowledge growing. I noticed my memory improves as well. That is because I am being forced to think.

Step three: Self reflection and evaluation. This is my favorite activity. Self reflection and evaluation is basically assessing your life and asking yourself questions. What is working? What is not working? What areas of my life must I improve? What must I get rid of that does not benefit me at all? How do I feel about this situation? How can I change this area of my life that I am not satisfied with? Are my priorities in order? Have I dedicated enough time for my family?

Questions that evaluate your life help improve your life. This strategy helps (in my life) keep depression at bay because I can actively work on bringing myself closer to a state of happiness, set needed goals, and have hope. It also helps because it has you critically think about your life and makes you think long and hard about what is going on.

Step four: Skip the drugs.

This is a no brainer (pun intended). Partaking in drugs messes up your thinking skills. Take it from someone who has seen people totally change when they started to do it, they think differently, and then act differently, and even myself…of course when you get super wasted or high of weed, you don’t think the same. Soberness helps you think clearly to make the right choices and decisions. That is why you don’t get extremely drunk and then show up at your final exam at college. It don’t work like that girl.

It is important to care for our mind and brain because it alleviates stress. When we think clearly and better, we can make amazing choices for our business, families, investments, and organizations. So that means less stress because everything runs more smoothly. If our mind is improved, we can treat the people around us better, since we are treating ourselves better. Plus, your brain is so important. I mean, it’s your brain. We need it. No matter what the benefit is- you are winning. Get your mind right, and you’ll start to think your life is great (because it is great, and it will be great).